The Justice Department investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity could conclude that administration officials disclosed the woman's name and occupation to the media but still committed no crime because they did not know she was an undercover operative, legal experts said this week.

"It could be embarrassing but not illegal," said Victoria Toensing, who was chief counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when Congress passed the law protecting the identities of undercover agents.

Someone correct me if I am mistaken - but I thought she was assumed to have been outed by Aldrich Ames - and was removed from undercover status because of that. You cannot unring a bell - if she was compromised by Ames and moved into a non-covert role, no one could have committed a crime by identifying her. End of story.

Don't forget: the law allows the disclosure with the Director's approval. If Tenet approved it, it's perfectly legal. And if Tenet thought she had railroaded the Niger mission by recommending Wilson, he very well could have approved of outing her.

Wasn't it some guy from the CIA who told Bob Novak about this? So Washington Post calls him an "administration official". Makes it sound closer to the White House. If this was the Clinton administration he would be called a "CIA official".

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